Review of Lost World, The

Introduction

Back in 1925, well before the Jurassic Park trilogy was born, there was a silent film called The Lost World. The plot is simple fantasy – a group of travelers discover a ‘lost world’ of dinosaurs and attempt to prove to the world their existence. The Arthur Conan Doyle book it was based on was later to inspire King Kong, and Michael Crichton’s book and Steven Spielberg`s film of the same name.

Video

The picture is unbelievably good for a film made over 75 years ago. The back of the box gives a detailed account of how a previously undiscovered print was found and then restored to a more than watchable quality. And, funnily enough, this expensive restoration was partly funded by Playboy king Hugh Hefner!

The stop-motion animation (forerunner of the famous Ray Harryhausen’s work) is surprisingly good. Of course, no one is going to expect Industrial Light & Magic CGI effects, or even Jurassic Park mechanised dinos, but you could easily see how 1920’s audiences would feel overawed by these monsters.

Audio

Of course, this silent film has no dialogue. However, two different orchestral scores are included as soundtracks.

Features

The main extra is a commentary by Roy Pilot, an author of ‘The Annotated Lost World’, a critical book on both the film and the novel that inspired it. Considering he’s an `expert`, the commentary is a little dry and unenthusiastic – I would have expected a lot more information and anecdotes than is given. Also included are 12 minutes of animation outtakes (deleted dinosaur footage) and a reproduction of the original programme booklet. A lot of effort has also been made in the menus, but I found them too elaborate, as you have to wait a long time before getting to the selection screen.

Conclusion

The Lost World is undoubtedly a landmark in cinema, with amongst the first special effects in film. Of course, it has dated a lot (most noticeable through the stilted dialogue) but remains enjoyable. The package is superb, with remastered audio and video, and a very good selection of extras. However, make sure that you like old, silent films before buying it, as it is a world apart from anything made in the last 30 years.